This invention relates to the field of watering devices for domestic animals whereby a source of drinking water is always available in the pens, or barns or pastures where such animals are kept.
It is common to keep domestic animals such as cattle and hogs in the same pastures or pens. It has been the practice prior to this invention to have separate watering devices for relatively taller animals such as cattle and for the relatively shorter animals such as hogs. This requires duplicate equipment, duplicate water lines, duplicate cabinets or other housings for the watering equipment, all of which results in duplicate expense, duplicate repairs, duplicate cleaning, duplicate protective measures against freezing and the like. Such problems are solved by the present invention which provides a watering device for shorter animals such as hogs in the same housing as a watering device for taller animals such as cattle.
Examples of prior art watering devices for animals include a hog watering nipple mounted on a stanchion as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,989, a hog watering system comprising connected watering nipples in a water line mounted along a fence as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,354; a hog watering system combined with a tank for mixing a medication with the water as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,176; a water tank having hog watering nipples on both sides as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,914; and a hog watering nipple whose height can be adjusted up and down as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,948.